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Kenai's Stephen Wilson competes in the 110-meter hurdles at the ASAA State Track Championships on Saturday at West Valley High School in Fairbanks
AP Photo/Jillian Rogers

Kenai's Stephen Wilson competes in the 110-meter hurdles at the ASAA State Track Championships on Saturday at West Valley High School in Fairbanks

AP Photo/Jillian Rogers

Unbeknownst to Kenai coach Tim Sandahl, the Kardinals were in position to lock up second place on the boys side of the ASAA State Track and Field Championships on Saturday.

“They weren’t giving team scores all day long, so I kind of new we were in the top five all day,” he said while trekking home from Fairbanks. “I didn’t really think we had a chance at second.”

They had more than a chance  some may even call it a guarantee.

Trailing Bartlett by 7.5 points going into the afternoon’s final event, which the Golden Bears weren’t competing in, Kenai needed only a second-place finish to secure the eight points needed to claim the runner-up position, one that would be the highest since the Kardinals won it all in 1968, Sandahl said.

Skyview's Ivy O'Guinn competes in the 3,200-meter race at the 2007 ASAA State Track Championships on Friday at West Valley High School in Fairbanks.

AP Photo/Jillian Rogers

Fortunately for Kenai, the last race is always the 4x400 relay, which just so happens to be the Kardinals’ strongest event.

Setting a new state best at the Region III meet a week ago in edging Kodiak’s lightning-quick 4x400 team, Kenai succumbed to the Bears athletic prowess this time, as the Bears won the race and the state title by 34.5 points, yet the Kardinals still squeaked out that much-needed second-place finish.

“It was pretty crazy. We all got real excited,” said McGlasson, who won a state title in the 300 hurdles. “We were all down from the 4x400, so it was really nice to go out with something else.”

Sandahl said that when it was over, he was informed by the Bartlett coach they had captured second place.

“I said, ‘You’re kidding me,’” he said with a laugh.

When it was officially announced, the Kardinals celebrated accordingly.

“We all screamed and jumped over the fence and went into the infield as a team just hooting and hollering, were presented our trophy and got a bunch of pictures,” Sandahl recalled. “It’s pretty cool that Kodiak was one and Kenai was two, that two teams from Region III beat up on the rest of the state.”

As for McGlasson, the second-place finish was probably just icing on the cake.

Setting a new state best in the prelims of the 300 hurdles on Friday with a time of 39.60, he wanted to do better in the finals.

“Getting under 40 has been haunting me all year,” he said during the 500-mile journey home. “I think once I did that yesterday, it kind of felt like a big weight was taken off my shoulders.”

Perhaps it was a little too much.

According to Sandahl, McGlasson was leading the competition approaching the second-to-last hurdle when he hit it “super” hard, nearly falling to the ground.

West Valley’s Garrett Jackson then passed the Kenai senior with one hurdle remaining.

“So Jed regained himself and ran as fast as he could, and that kid fell on last hurdle and tumbled and Jed passed him and that’s how he won his championship,” Sandahl said. “You’ve never seen a group of Kenai people so deflated and tenths of seconds go by and we’re all going crazy. It was pretty wild.”

Hours later, McGlasson was still unable to completely describe what led to his crown less than 72 hours after his high school graduation.

“I was just trying to catch him again,” he said of his thoughts after his own fall. “I was doing as much as I could to get up to him before that next hurdle  before the last hurdle.

“After I had almost fallen, he was probably a stride ahead of me. I was right there with him. I saw him go right down. I was like, ‘Sweet.’”

The Kardinals weren’t the only Kenai Peninsula-bound athletes celebrating, though.

Soldotna’s Paige Blackburn accomplished a mission she embarked on at the beginning of the season  being crowned queen of the girls’ throwing kingdom.

Dominating the local circuit all year, the junior captured first place in both the shot put and discus with tosses of 40 feet, 4.75 inches, and 123-09, respectively, one year after placing second in the shot and fourth in the discus.

“I was ecstatic to get the two titles. I’ve been chasing those for a couple years now,” she said via cell phone. “This year I felt real comfortable because I felt like a veteran being the third time. I didn’t feel quite so nervous as I used to. I was a lot more comfortable there than I was before.”

Next season should be even better.

“I’m really excited for next year. Next year’s going to be all about distance,” Blackburn said. “I’m definitely going for two more titles.”

Also claiming a state title was the Seward boys’ 4x800 relay team, comprised of Travis Price, Nick Spurr, Mark Chase and Matt Nyholm, which outran Kodiak by almost four seconds.

After running the fastest time of the 100 preliminaries on Friday, SoHi senior Kelly Seggerman finished second on Saturday, only .08 seconds behind defending state champion Damar Wilson of East High.

“It was a great race,” said Stars’ coach Galen Brantley Jr. “It was kind of a two-man race from the get-go. It just didn’t go our way.”

While saying the 100 is his strongest event, Seggerman took third in the 200, roughly 1.3 seconds behind champion Ethan Hewitt of Chugiak.

“We’re pretty excited on the season that he’s had,” Brantley Jr. said.

Seward sophomore Travis Price placed second in the 800, finishing 1.35 seconds behind the superhuman Cory Pena of Kodiak, who also won the 1,600 with an incredible time of 4:16.85.

Kenai’s Stephen Wilson had an impressive state meet, too, finishing second in the triple jump, third in the long jump and fourth in the 110 hurdles. He was also a member of the 4x200 relay team, also consisting of McGlasson, Flanagan and Sutton, which placed third.

“The hurdle race was just really super, super fast. Shaun Ward (of Chugiak) and (Levi Benning of Juneau) are just extremely fast,” Sandahl said. “It was an exciting race to watch. There were hurdles flying everywhere.”

Another Kardinal, freshman Lierin Flanagan, placed fifth in both the 100 and 400, seventh in the 200 and was a member of the fourth-place 4x400 relay team, along with Molly Watkins, Lauren Baldwin and Kalee Alsworth.

“I think she’s very happy,” Sandahl said. “For a freshman to be in that situation to run in the finals at state, that had to have been really cool for her.”

When it was all said and done, she was already brimming with excitement about her sophomore campaign.

“She said ‘Man, what do you think about the 800 next year?’  just kind of already planning for next year,” he said. “What’s neat with her is she wasn’t happy with just finishing fifth or seventh or whatever.

“She was still even upset like, ‘Man, I wish I could have done better.’ So, it’s not like she was just settling. She was hoping for more.”

Before the competition even began, Homer’s Erik Rasmussen was resigned to the fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to win the shot put or the discus.

Dubbed as the best thrower this state has ever produced, Bartlett’s Jordan Clarke lived up to that billing.

The junior set state records in both events with tosses of 60-1 in the shot and 192-7 in the discus, while Rasmussen placed second in both with throws of 53-3.5 and 166-9, respectively.

“Putting up 190 and 60, his phone’s going to busy all summer. There’s going to be a lot of people interested in him,” Brantley Jr. marveled. “Once in a great while a kid will come through our state who’s real special and unique. He’s definitely the one right now in our state who gives credibility to track and field. He’s putting up numbers as good as anybody else in the country.”

SoHi’s Ryan Shelton, who’s been shuffling in and out of the top spot with Rasmussen throughout the season, finished fourth in both events.

A pair of local freshmen also made names for themselves.

Soldotna’s Chelsea Wilbanks finished third in the high jump while Skyview’s Ivy O’Guinn took third in the 3,200.

Also from Skyview, senior Alex West finished sixth and the 4x800 relay team, comprised of West, O’Guinn, Kendra Merkes and Marquee Lucas, also claimed sixth.

Earning points towards the Kardinals’ second-place finish was Bill Chimphalee, who placed fourth in the long jump, Rainey, who claimed fourth in the 300 hurdles and Casey Ellis, who tied for fifth in the high jump.

Seward’s 4x800 team, made up of Rubye and Denali Foldager, Allison Barnwell and Kendra Oldow, finished fourth; Cook Inlet Academy’s Brooke Forsi placed fourth in the 400, Josh Holly came in sixth in the 3,200 and the girls 4x400 team (Forsi, Sadie Arneson, Amie Smithwick and Dailee Cooper) also took sixth; and Homer’s Deonte Powe took sixth in the 400.